everything's different this year, darling
by finnhudson
Summary: finn & rachel and what a difference a year can make.


**This was written for finchelsecretsanta on tumblr, but I thought I would upload here as well! This was written for Erika (jlangblues) who wanted a comparison fic of this year's and last year's new year's eve for Finn and Rachel and here it is! Enjoy and Happy Holidays everyone! :)**

…

December 31st, last year.

...

"I can't believe that next year I'll be standing in the middle of all of that, I'm so excited!" Rachel clapped her hands together, throwing a wide smile at Kurt. Kurt gave an equally excited look back, clasping his hands together.

"I know! I can't wait to see it all in person. New Year's Eve has always been one of my favorite days of the year." Kurt said, grabbing a hand full of organic popcorn and stuffing it into his mouth. Rachel opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by Finn who plopped himself down on the couch between them.

"What are you guys talking about?" He asked between handfuls of popcorn. Rachel rolled her eyes and giggled softly.

"Just the future that's all, this is going to be the best year ever I can feel it!" She smiled widely, looping her arm through Finn's, looking up at him with a grin. "I have an amazing best friend, a wonderful wonderful boyfriend, glee club is going to take regionals and nationals, I know it, and I have a bright bright future ahead of me, nothing can go wrong."

"To the best year ever." Finn said, grabbing his glass of Coca Cola off the table and raising it high in the air. Rachel and Kurt raised their glasses (of sparkling cider - Kurt's and flavored water - Rachel's respectively). "To the best year ever." They echoed, clinking their glasses together.

"Oh we're getting closer to the ball dropping, only two more minutes." Kurt said, facing his attention back to the television, leaving Rachel and Finn to focus their attention on each other.

"Do you really believe that?" Rachel asked softly, leaning her chin on Finn's arm, biting her lip, a nervous habit she had developed over the years, one that her fathers were relentlessly trying to get her to break.

"Of course I do. Listen, you're right, glee club has regionals and nationals in the bag, we're gonna win, and then we're going to graduate and then you're going to be the big star that you're meant to be, I know you will." He smiled softly at her, brushing some of the hair from her cheeks and tucking it behind her ear tenderly.

"I love you, Finn, and this is going to be our year." She said, reaching up and kissing him softly.

"It isn't midnight yet you two, can you hold it in for one more minute." Kurt piped from his spot, which was now on the floor in front of the TV. Finn rolled his eyes, but laughed softly at his brother.

"I know it is, I love you too." He said, kissing her on the forehead quickly so they could turn their attention to the TV and watch the ball drop.

Kurt managed to get a crack in about how Ryan Seacrest got cuter and cuter each year and when the clock struck midnight, Finn knocked the popcorn to the floor before giving Rachel a sloppy kiss that made Kurt gag.

"Happy New Year, Rachel." Finn said, nuzzling his nose against her forehead, his thumbs caressing her waist.

"Happy New Year, Finn."

...

December 31st, this year (New York City)

...

"Ugh I hate New Year's Eve, talk about a pointless holiday." Kurt grumbled from his spot on the couch, his eyes glued to the television in front of him. Rachel laughed, placing a bowl of pretzels on the table in front of him.

"C'mon, last year you said it was your favorite holiday, and now you hate it, that doesn't make a lick of sense." She said, arching her eyebrow.

"And last year you were sucking my step brother's face all night and now you two are barely speaking, which also doesn't make a lick of sense." Kurt retorted. Rachel cringed, avoiding Kurt's gaze.

"The state of Finn and I's relationship has nothing to do with your sudden change in attitude, but we can drop the subject if that makes you more comfortable." She said, smoothing out the skirt that she had slipped on earlier that day to try and be festive for the holiday.

"So, what's Brody doing tonight, is there a specific reason he won't be joining us. I thought you two were a thing these days." Kurt asked, his eyes not leaving the TV, where Lady GaGa was belting out some song that Rachel didn't recognize.

"Brody and I are not a thing, we've spent time together lately, but nothing romantic. I have no idea what he's doing tonight." She says simply, to be honest she had no idea what was going on with her and Brody, sure they had kissed a few times, but to this day Rachel had no idea what her actual feelings for him were.

"Whatever you say." Kurt mumbled, deciding to drop the subject of boyfriends (ex and current), or kind of boyfriends in this case.

"Remember last year when we thought this year was going to be the best year ever." She said, sighing softly, thinking back how last year's New Year's Eve had been perfect. She felt silly now for thinking that this year wouldn't have any kind of hurt in it.

"Yeah, it hasn't been the best year that's for sure, Blaine and I broke up, my dad has cancer, but there's been some high points as well, NYADA, New York, Glee club winning Nationals, it wasn't a total bust." Kurt said.

Rachel just sighed softly in response, and glancing quickly at the TV, decided that she didn't want to spend midnight doing the same thing she had done last year. "I'm going to go sit on my windowsill, watch the city, happy new year's Kurt." She said, kissing him on the cheek and retreating to her room.

Perching herself on her windowsill, she opened the window, letting the cool New York breeze hit her face. Breathing in she looked up at the sky, the bright city lights blacking out most of the night sky. She saw a few stars twinkling and remembered that one of the stars up there belonged to her.

Her Finn Hudson star was up there somewhere and for some reason, that gave her hope for the New Year. It almost felt like he was there with her. She heard the crowds screaming on the TV and looking at her cell phone next to her, she knew it was here.

"Happy New Year's Finn." She said at the sky, smiling softly.

...

The same day. (Lima, Ohio)

...

_Puck sure did know how to throw a party. _Finn thought as he weaved his way through the high schoolers that were crowding the Puckerman living room and kitchen. A beer in his hand, Finn tried his best not to get hit by a drunken teenager as made his way to the porch.

Once he was outside he let himself breath. Don't get him wrong, Puck was his best friend, but his parties could get a little out of control and this was no exception. He had already seen like three topless cheerleaders and more of Sam than he ever wanted to and it wasn't even midnight yet.

Taking a seat on the one chair that sat on the porch, Finn took a swig of his beer and let the cold Lima air calm him down. He tried to force himself not to think about what he had been doing last year on New Year's Eve but was unsuccessful. Everything around him was making him think of Rachel.

(He knew it sounded weird, he was at some high school party with drinking, smoking and inappropriate dancing, all things that Rachel loathed, but he was on this third beer and things were getting pretty fuzzy.)

He thought about how last year they had promised that this was going to the best year ever, but that had gone down the toilet pretty fast. Now she was probably spending New Year's with Kurt and Brody laughing at some stupid joke Brody was saying. What kind of name was Brody anyway, apparently it was a name that Rachel found attractive, god he hated that douche bag.

He cursed loudly, kicking the small table next to him, which caused his beer to spill over slightly. He groaned leaning his head back against the chair back, he idly wondered what time it was, it must be getting pretty close to midnight. He could hear the music getting quieter and before too long everyone was screaming out, muffled 'Happy New Year' among the shrill shrieks and yells.

Here's a year that's not going to be much better than the last, Finn was bitter, he knew that he would feel differently in the morning, but right now he was self loathing and pissed off so he was going to wallow in the New Year.

"Happy New Year to me." He said tipping his beer to the sky and downing it in one, sour gulp.

…..

**Happy Holiday's again! **


End file.
